There are scores of individuals walking the streets today who experience recurring episodes of atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, or tachycardia. While not life-threatening, these supra-ventricular arrhythmias can become debiliting and lead to complications, and hence require treatment when present. Such individuals require frequent electrical or pharmacological conversion under the care of their physicians to return their hearts to normal sinus rhythm.
Drug therapy is not infrequently successful in correcting atrial fibrillation, flutter or tachycardia, but there are many patients who are resistant to the appropriate drugs or who suffer serious side-effects from the drugs. For these patients, cardioversion is accomplished by way of a technique in which a pulse generator and external paddles combine to send high energy electrical pulses through the ailing patient's thorax to the heart.
For those who suffer from recurring bouts of atrial tachyarrythmias, regular and often times frequent visits to hospitals are in order. Those whose hearts can be successfully returned to normal sinus rhythm by way of drug therapy frequently undergo hospitalization so that the effects of the administered drugs can be carefully monitored. Similarly, those requiring electrical cardioversion are generally cardioverted in the hospital due to the fact that the procedure frequently requires the application of a general anesthetic and carries with it a significant risk to the patient.
It is toward the facilitation of treatment for and the reduction of the risks to those patients suffering from recurring episodes of atrial fibrillation, flutter and tachycardia, that the present invention is directed.